Chapter 134
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 134
Chapter Title: Dimensional Traveler, Main Event - 2
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"Well, well— looks like something big happened here. It's practically a warzone, isn't it? Was there an event like this around this time?”
The burly man who appeared from the Black Gate had a smooth, sly voice that echoed with unusual clarity. That was because a heavy silence had fallen over the area, with no one else daring to speak.
"......."
A black gate opening out of nowhere was strange enough, but a single Player emerging from it…
"What the hell is going on right now? Am I the only one who doesn't get it?”
"I have no clue either, but I've got a really bad feeling about this.”
"That guy, is he even a Player? And that sword, isn't that Moglay?”
The Players gathered here were some of the most renowned and skilled in the world.
But this scene was something they couldn't comprehend, even with their vast experience.
Faced with an unprecedented phenomenon they hadn't witnessed in a long time, they were frozen in place.
But among them all, the most bewildered was, without a doubt, William Bernard himself.
His complexion was still pale, a side effect of having coughed up the black orb.
And now, a man who looked just like him had walked out of that very orb.
"You… who are you?”
William Bernard asked, his expression somewhat dazed.
The man grinned and strode toward him.
Clank— Clank—
He casually set the greatsword in his hand—Moglay—down on the ground…
Thud—
The two-ton greatsword slammed into the earth with a heavy sound.
"That's Mo-Moglay… Why do you have…”
"Hey, can't you tell just by looking? This handsome face of mine.”
"My… face… Shit, why the hell do you look exactly like me?"
Indeed, the two men were so perfectly alike they could have passed for twins.
The only slight difference was that the newcomer's face bore more scars.
After studying the man's face, William Bernard turned to look for his brother.
"Hyung, am I dreaming?”
The man also turned his head and walked over to Harry Bernard.
And then—
"Wow… It's been a long time since I've seen your face, Hyung. Haha— I'm so happy to see you, I could cry…."
He called him "Hyung" as if he were the real William Bernard, his expression turning melancholic.
Harry Bernard said nothing, but his eyebrows twitched twice.
His fingers twitched as if he were about to draw the sword on his back at any moment.
"Don't tell me you don't recognize this handsome face either, Hyung?”
"What are you? A doppelgänger?”
"Hahaha— Well, I can see why you'd think that!”
Meanwhile, the man's breath reeked of a drug-like consumable item called 'Swamp Hallucination Herb.'
Even if he was a real Player, he was clearly not in his right mind.
He blinked his bloodshot eyes rapidly, then tilted his head back toward the sky and grinned.
"Hehehe…."
It was a strange laugh, one that carried the danger of a ticking bomb or a starving beast.
"…Well, I guess you're all still busy playing Villains and Guardians at this point, so it makes sense you wouldn't understand.”
At those words, the Villains in the vicinity couldn't help but be flustered. For him to so casually mention their dark secret, which the rest of the world was oblivious to… Who in the world was this man?
Whether he knew of their shock or not, the William Bernard from the future began humming as he surveyed his surroundings.
"But why are there so many of these crappy airships… Huh?”
His gaze suddenly stopped at a certain point.
Prydwen, and the man standing before it… It was Lee Hyun-wook.
"Huh… What's this now?”
He wore a peculiar expression—a mix of delight, surprise, and disgust.
"Steel Great Emperor… Why are you here?"
Not Steel Rain, but Steel Great Emperor. That was his nickname from his past life.
"Wow… What the hell is this? You're not supposed to know how to develop your abilities yet!”
"......."
"This is weird… I heard history could be different in a parallel universe, but this different?”
*Scrape—*
Muttering to himself, he pulled the embedded Moglay from the ground.
He then scratched his chin and walked toward Lee Hyun-wook.
Clank— Clank—
"But how are you here, and how did you already develop that damn weapon box? In my memory, that shouldn't happen for at least another five, no, six years… I couldn't have come to the wrong time period…."
At this, Lee Hyun-wook realized the man didn't know about his regression. He had worried that someone from his past life might be a killer sent to hunt him down, but that didn't seem to be the case.
"Who are you?”
This time, it was Lee Hyun-wook who asked.
To be honest, he too was baffled by the current situation.
‘I can't make heads or tails of what's going on.’
It had been a long time since he’d faced a situation he couldn't even begin to speculate about.
But one thing was certain.
This man was the very same one who had killed him in his past life.
As he dwelled on that fact, the emotion of rage began to smolder deep within his chest.
But he calmly suppressed that primal instinct.
‘Revenge… More important than that is… why he traveled through dimensions.’
That had to be connected to the reason for his own regression, and perhaps even to the true nature of this game.
Lee Hyun-wook calmly racked his brain for a way to gather information while simultaneously preparing for battle.
A version of this man from eight years in the future would be a warrior Player stronger than even Han Tae-san.
In other words, a moment of carelessness could get him torn to shreds before he could do anything.
And it was unknown how much stronger the man had become since Hyun-wook's death.
‘But the one who’s truly careless is him.’
That relaxed demeanor… He had always been arrogant, but right now, he seemed particularly overflowing with confidence.
‘Then again, if I went back eight years into the past, everything would seem easy to me too.’
The man likely saw everything here as child's play.
‘But the me of now… is far stronger than the me of eight years later.’
He had to exploit that irony.
The man would have no idea.
"Who are you to speak as if you know me?”
Lee Hyun-wook asked again, feigning ignorance.
"Uh, hmm, what am I…."
The man blinked his half-lidded eyes, thought for a moment, then pulled a potion from his pocket and swallowed it.
It was likely the Swamp Hallucination Herb. Immediately after, a wicked smile spread across his face as he spoke.
"Heh— Alright, I've decided. From now on… I am a disaster from the future.”
His rather dramatic answer started a murmur through the crowd.
From the future? Whether it was true or not, it was a shocking claim.
"Oh! And would you believe me if I told you I'm the one who kills you in that future? Hehehe—”
"The feeling of crushing your skull with a wooden mallet after conquering Seoul—it was just fantastic!”
…He knew all too well. The very next moment, he had woken up in the A.M.T barracks, and that was the beginning of his current life.
The man then turned and began to whisper something. Lee Hyun-wook listened in through Hugin.
"Ah, Hyung! Want me to tell you something good? That bastard over there becomes a pretty big obstacle later on.”
"It's absurd, I know, but you end up getting killed by him. But don't worry. I'll kill him right now…."
After saying that, he drank another dose of the Swamp Hallucination Herb.
"Heh— You get what I'm saying? That bastard becomes the Guardians' final weapon, so we have to strike now.”
"What on earth… Are you really saying you're the Will from the future?”
"Hah, I'm telling you! You and that Mexican bitch end up together, so don't worry.”
As they exchanged some private secret only the two of them knew, a strange look appeared on Harry Bernard's face.
"Hah— It really seems you are Will… but what in the world happened?”
"Hyung, for me to continue existing here, I have to complete a certain quest.”
At that, Lee Hyun-wook couldn't help but frown. Just as his encounter with this man was part of a ‘Main Quest,’ it seemed this man's reason for being here was also a quest.
"Will, can you tell me what that quest is?”
"Like I said before, I'm a kind of disaster. So…."
The William Bernard from the future said, raising Moglay.
"…True to my name, I have to kill as many Players of this dimension as possible.”
*Woooooooo—*
At that moment, the mana in the area began to be sucked toward the tip of his Moglay.
The Players reflexively took a step back.
"…Huh?”
"What is he trying to do?”
Lee Hyun-wook knew what the man was about to do.
In his past life, Moglay was imbued with the Sylph's Orb, the power of a wind spirit.
This allowed him to use the skills ‘Mana Burst Sword’ and ‘Space Cutter.’
"Everyone, get out of here, now.”
Lee Hyun-wook said, clutching the Mana Messenger as he levitated into the air.
Staying here meant getting swept up in the storm.
Just then, Kang Seo-yoon's voice came through the Mana Messenger.
- …What on earth is going on? Should we leave too?
She and the other Players who had come from Seoul were aboard Prydwen.
They had decided to remain hidden for now, just in case.
"For now, stay there and keep an eye on the other Players in the area.”
At that moment, the man swung Moglay in a wide arc, like a baseball bat—
*Flash—*
A flash of light—the greatsword was suddenly behind his left shoulder, having started from behind his right.
*KRA-KA-KA-KA-BOOM—!*
Immediately after, a deafening roar, like dozens of jet engines firing at once, erupted as the air rippled. Moglay had absorbed a massive amount of mana, compressed it, and then released it all at once. A ‘mana storm’ raged outward from where he stood, tearing up the ground in a fan-like pattern.
"Aaargh—!”
The Players caught in the storm's radius were helplessly thrown into the air.
But that was just a wide-area crowd control skill; the real weapon was yet to come.
‘Here it comes.’
The invisible mana blade, ‘Space Cutter,’ that followed the initial attack was about to fly.
It would slice through everything floating and off-balance in the storm.
*Sh-sh-sh-shing—!*
It was a terrorist attack, an indiscriminate assault that swept up countless Players.
"Crazy— Wha-what was that all of a sudden!”
"Dammit, prepare for battle!”
Some Players reflexively fired off magic attacks.
A dozen spells rained down on the man's head.
*Boom—Boom—Boom—Boom—!*
But all the attacks were blocked by some kind of magic barrier.
It wasn't one he had cast himself, but support from someone else.
‘No doubt it’s the Villains.’
The Villains were likely just as surprised by this sudden turn of events, but they must have judged it to be a massive opportunity regardless.
Sure enough, he detected movements from various directions as they prepared to target him.
"My friends are quick on the uptake, I see. Well, I guess that's why the Villains won in the end, right?”
William Bernard said, looking at Lee Hyun-wook with an intrigued expression.
"But for you to notice and dodge that… the you of this era has grown much faster than I thought.”
"Hehehe— I don't know how history has changed, but in the end, you're still just prey to me.”
*Thoom—* The man kicked off the ground and shot toward Lee Hyun-wook like a cannonball.
‘He’s going to use Blink Rush now.’
It was a fighter-class movement skill that allowed one to traverse a certain distance instantaneously to close in on an enemy.
Having fought him several times in his past life, Lee Hyun-wook knew his attack patterns to some extent.
But then, something unexpected happened.
*Flash—Flash—Flash—*
‘What?’
As far as he remembered, it was a skill that could only be used once.
But just now, he had blinked three times, closing the distance in an instant.
‘Dammit, looks like he’s grown quite a bit!’
The man, now only three meters away, grinned.
‘This is it. I’m dead.’
The shadow of Moglay was already looming over his head.
*Woooong—*
The moment the two-ton blade came down on him, Lee Hyun-wook played the ace he had been saving.
The bracelet tattoo on his left wrist—Gleipnir—shot out and wrapped around the man's body.
"Ugh—!”
- You have been bound by ‘Gleipnir’!
- Cannot be removed by your own power for 10 minutes.
- All ‘abilities’ are sealed for 10 minutes.
He followed up by drawing Unsa-amsu and striking at the man's neck.
In that split second, the man twisted his body, blocking the blade with his shoulder armor.
He then spun in mid-air and launched a Brazilian kick at Lee Hyun-wook.
‘I can’t just block this.’
It wasn’t imbued with any skill, but it was a kick from a master-class warrior Player. Blocking it recklessly would shatter every bone in his body. Lee Hyun-wook had no choice but to retreat a good distance.
In that time, a swarm of metal weapons had gathered above his head like a cloud of bees.
*Swoosh—Swoosh—Swoosh—Swoosh—!*
With a gesture of his hand, hundreds of steel weapons rained down on the man.
"Tch! You son of a…."
Completely bound by Gleipnir, he would have no way to block the follow-up attack.
"Will—!"
Just then, with a shout from Harry Bernard, a ring on the man's finger began to glow…
- Gleipnir has been released by a third party.
‘Dammit, a telekinesis ring? As expected, they were prepared for Gleipnir.’
Gleipnir could never be removed by the wearer, but it could be easily released by the touch of another person. The Villains, knowing he possessed it, had prepared a countermeasure.
"Dammit, why the hell does he have this—!”
The man, now on the ground, tore off Gleipnir and threw it away, shouting.
"This world is completely, utterly insane!”
He then created a subspace in the air, reached into it, and pulled out a longbow.
He nocked an arrow, and again, it was a very familiar item.
Failnaught, the arrow that never misses, tracking its target until it hits.
‘So he took all my keepsakes, did he?’
*Kreeee—!*
The artisan-grade longbow was drawn to its maximum tension and then released Failnaught.
*Shwiiick—!*
Lee Hyun-wook twisted in mid-air, but as expected, Failnaught followed him like a guided missile.
*Crrrrack—*
Lee Hyun-wook drew all the surrounding metal to himself, completely encasing his body. A metal sphere enveloped him, reducing his vision to zero, but he could still perceive his surroundings by sensing the metal.
*Crack—!*
Failnaught pierced through the metal sphere, but Lee Hyun-wook had already created a triple layer of iron plates around his body.
*Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!*
Failnaught broke through two more plates before embedding itself in the third and stopping.
Lee Hyun-wook grabbed it.
- This item already has an ‘owner’.
- To forcefully acquire it, you must possess it for ‘5 minutes’.
In other words, in five minutes, he would have two Failnaughts.
‘This is… getting my hopes up….'
Just then, he felt a huge mass of metal flying toward him from above.
He opened the back of the metal sphere and threw himself out.
In that instant, Moglay came crashing down vertically, splitting the sphere in two.
*KABOOM—!*
If he had been a moment later, he would have been like a chick in a cracked egg.
*Wham!*
A follow-up kick—he dodged the direct hit, but the resulting explosion of air slammed into his abdomen.
*Thwack—!*
"Kuh!”
Lee Hyun-wook was thrown back thirty meters in an instant.
The man then threw Moglay like a javelin.
*Huuung—!*
Just as he was about to be impaled—
*CLANG—!*
Something shot down from high in the sky and struck his Moglay.
The two massive weapons flew off in different directions and slammed into the ground.
But both of them… were two-ton Moglay greatswords.
At that moment, the man's previously triumphant eyes widened for the first time, filled with disbelief.
"What, that Moglay… D-don't tell me… you're controlling it?”
His voice now laced with clear irritation, the man whipped his head around to look at Harry Bernard.
"Hyung! What the fuck is going on?”
"What?”
"Why does he already have your Moglay! Huh?”
Harry Bernard could only look back with a confused expression.
The him of this world had never owned a Moglay in the first place.
"…I don't know what you're talking about, or what you're doing.”
"Seriously, what the fuck is up with this world! This makes no sense!”
He was finally realizing, with certainty, that this world was drastically different from the one he remembered.
"Hmph… But even if you have a Moglay, it's still just from eight years ago…."
*Woooong—Woooong—*
Because behind Lee Hyun-wook, two more Moglays were now floating.
"Don't tell me, replicas… and you have two of them?”
Soon, a total of three Moglays were floating horizontally, all aimed at the man.
Lee Hyun-wook looked down at him as he slowly descended toward the ground.
Everyone on the ground looked up at him.
And as they did, they saw the thirty AD-2 drones deployed at regular intervals across the sky.
*Woooooooo—*
From their subspaces, countless steel weapons poured out, forming ranks in the air.
There were so many that they partially blocked out the sun, like a set of blinds.
Those standing below felt a chill run down their spines, regardless of their own strength.
*Ssssss—*
Furthermore, all sorts of metal fragments were crawling across the ground like a swarm of insects.
A great battle had taken place here, leaving metal for Lee Hyun-wook to use scattered everywhere.
They all gathered, now forming a circle around the entire area.
"…Don't tell me you've been gathering all that this whole time?”
It was Harry Bernard who asked. He seemed to have realized Lee Hyun-wook's hidden intention.
"Hey, future Will… As you've probably noticed, we're surrounded by his weapons.”
"I know that better than you! I've fought that bastard many times! But still, it's just eight years ago…."
Once again, his words were cut short. His eyebrows trembled.
"What the fuck is this…."
His keen senses gave him a rough estimate of the weight of the metal moving around him.
But… the amount of metal moving at once was far greater than anything he had experienced in the future.
He shook his head in denial.
"Why… why is there so much? It's eight years in the past… This is impossible!”
That wasn't all.
*Bubble—Bubble—*
The immense amount of metal gathered from all directions began to fuse together, turning into molten steel.
*Chiiiiii—*
As the world was dyed orange by the rising flames, Lee Hyun-wook's feet touched the ground.
He began to walk straight toward William Bernard.
And like a man herding lava, waves of molten steel flowed alongside him.
‘Just as I thought… as long as there's enough metal around me, he's no match for me.’
Lee Hyun-wook looked William Bernard straight in the eye and spoke.
"Now, what else have you got? Go on, bring it all out.”
"…What?”
"Your items. You have a lot of good ones, don't you?”
He said it with a slight smile, a smile that held a hint of greed.
"I don't know where you came from… but this world is different from the one you knew.”
Lee Hyun-wook slowly raised his left hand.
The moment he saw that gesture, William Bernard felt his heart drop for the first time in a long while.
"Hah—”
Yes, he had killed the future Lee Hyun-wook with his own hands. That was a fact.
But despite that fact, he had never once managed to break through Lee Hyun-wook's assault.
No matter how he tried to close the distance, he was relentlessly pushed back by a never-ending barrage of steel weapons.
In the end, he was always the one to tire out first. It was a perfect counter.
Even so, wasn't this eight years in the past?
He had been certain he would win by an overwhelming margin.
And yet…
"In this world, I am ahead of you.”
Unbelievably, the Lee Hyun-wook of this world was far more developed than the Lee Hyun-wook of eight years in the future.
*KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA—!*
Just then, the molten steel flowing on either side of him began to surge.
It twisted together into one, soon taking the form of a giant hand.
"You said you were a disaster from the future, right?”
The giant's hand, made of steel, came crashing down on their heads.
"......Sorry, but to me, you look more like a gift box from the future."